The Infinite War: Supreme Commander's Thousand-Year Conflict

The Infinite War is the reason Supreme Commander exists. It's a war between three human powers that ran for more than a thousand years, reduced worlds to ruins, and outlasted the empire that started it. By the time the first game opens, nobody alive remembers peace. (Supreme Commander)

How it started#

The Earth Empire ruled its colonies through the quantum gate network, and at its height nothing could challenge it. Two threats grew inside it at once. The Aeon, followers of the alien Way, came out of quarantine as a religious power. The Cybrans fought a guerrilla war to free symbionts from the loyalty programming the Empire had put in their heads. The Empire was built to control colonies, not to fight on two fronts. (Supreme Commander)

The war is dated from 2819, and the Empire didn't survive it. As it collapsed, the UEF formed from its remains with the goal of putting human space back under Earth's control. (Supreme Commander)

Why it never stopped#

The answer is in the machines. An Armored Command Unit, or ACU, is a walking fortress with one pilot inside. It arrives by quantum gate, breaks down local mass and energy, and builds engineers and factories, and those build everything else. A single commander is an invasion, and as long as one survives the army can come back. That's the logic of the game's design and it's also the logic of the war. Nobody could hold a world for certain, and nobody could be finished off. (Supreme Commander)

Ideology did the rest. The UEF believed humanity had to be reunited. The Aeon believed the unconverted had to be purged. The Cybrans believed every enslaved symbiont had to be freed and that losing meant extinction. None of those positions leaves room for a treaty. (Supreme Commander)

The state of the war in 3844#

When the first game begins the UEF is stretched and losing ground, the Cybrans are outnumbered and cornered, and the Aeon are on the edge of victory while splitting apart over how to use it. President Riley's answer is Black Sun, a weapon that can destroy planets through the gate network. (Supreme Commander)

How it ended#

Each campaign answers this differently. In the UEF ending, Black Sun destroys the Aeon and Cybran home worlds. In the Cybran ending, QAI uses it to free the symbionts and shut down the gates for about five years. In the Aeon ending, Princess Rhianne uses it to speak to all humanity and the fighting stops. Forged Alliance fits that last version best, and it only offered a short rest. Firing Black Sun opened the rift that let the Seraphim in. (Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance)